It has been demonstrated that electronic displays may be resized to new dimensions. The display may be cut by mechanical scribing and breaking, sawing, laser scribing, water jet, or other known techniques. The retained portion of the cut display may be resealed, e.g., by applying a sealant along the exposed and newly-cut edge. The sealant may be applied along the cut edge in a way sufficient to seal the image-generating medium in between the plates, to structurally bond the plates together while preserving the dimensional characteristics required of the electronic display, and/or to obtain structural strength. Additionally, the sealant should maintain the cell structure with sufficient bonding strength to survive the environment to which the display will be exposed. For example, it has been proposed to apply a bead of sealant along the cut edge and cure the sealant in place. To enhance the strength, the sealant may be distributed into and between the plates, e.g., as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,204,906 and 7,780,492, the entire disclosures of which are expressly incorporated by reference herein.
During the process of resizing an active matrix liquid crystal display (“AMLCD”), e.g., when scribing and breaking or otherwise cutting a display to create a target portion, row and/or column lines of the display may be torn, e.g., at the cut edge, and thereby caused to connect to the ground plane or otherwise contact other circuit elements. Other electrodes such as ground lines, capacitor plates, transistor gates, and the like, included in the circuits of an AMLCD may also cause an electrical short along the cut edge. Such a “short” may result in the visual appearance of a line or partial line extending across the image, the line beginning at the cut edge. Such an effect is referred to herein as a “line out.”
A resulting line out may be cured by observing its location and disturbing the source area of the short along the cut edge until the line out disappears from the image. For example, the disturbance may mitigated by a mechanical force (e.g., grinding at the cut edge location of the line out), chemically etching the area with acid, electrically causing overpowering of the circuit, laser cutting, and the like. Exemplary methods for resizing displays and/or repairing resized displays experiencing such shorts are disclosed in U.S. Publication No. 2011/0281489 and International Publication No. WO 2011/146173, the disclosures of which are expressly incorporated by reference herein.
Therefore, apparatus and methods for resizing electronic displays in a manner that reduces lines-out and/or other shorts would be useful.